NMHC mulls outsourcing review of housing tax credit program

The Northern Marianas Housing Corp. is looking at outsourcing the compliance and review process for its Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program.

During Monday’s board meeting, corporate director Joshua Sasamoto reported to the board that he came up with the idea after attending a LIHTC symposium in New York sponsored by Spectrum Enterprises, which for over 25 years has been providing compliance monitoring services as the authorized delegate for state housing agencies.

“I am happy to report that it went better than I was even hoping for,” said Sasamoto who arrived back from the symposium yesterday morning.

Sasamoto said he was able to talk one-one-one with representatives of Spectrum Enterprises, which has done compliance monitoring services for seven states, including Hawaii, which they have been servicing since the early ‘90s.

According to Sasamoto, Spectrum Enterprises is also working now with American Samoa, another territory that, like the CNMI, began its LIHTC program just last year.

“The point about that is they do this for a living,” said Sasamoto. “They’re insiders; they know all the insiders.”

Should the services of Spectrum Enterprises be employed, Sasamoto said NMHC “won’t have to pay out of pocket” since the monitoring fees for LIHTC units can pay for it.

Sasamoto said the experts he talked to during his trip agreed that a $25 monitoring fee per unit—the current rate in Guam—is “too low” and that a “$100 per year monitoring report” would be “sufficient” to hire the monitoring services of companies like Spectrum Enterprises.

At the symposium, Sasamoto also “spent a lot of time talking to developers” that “might potentially submit an application” for the LIHTC program in the CNMI.

Created through the Tax Reformat of 1986 by the U.S. Congress, LIHTC is the largest and most important resource for creating affordable housing across the nation.

Presently, NMHC has approved two developers for the LIHTC program: Sandy Beach Homes, which is scheduled to complete by the end of the year its $28.2-million project in Chalan Kanoa, and the Blue Water Homes which is yet to start construction.

Board chair Marcie Tomokane instructed Sasamoto to submit a written report about the symposium as well as a proposal that the board can discuss and act on later.